As a 52-year-old, African-American woman who has devoted her life to a ministry of human rights and community building, my heart is burdened by the senseless death of Michael Brown, 18, at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

Michael defied the odds as a recent high school graduate on his way to college. He did not deserve to die. His body did not need to lie in the street, like waste, for four hours. Black men's lives should not be viewed as disposable. I believe all life is sacred and it is time for a thought leadership revolution to change the negative perceptions many people hold of African-American men in America. As a nation founded on the premise of liberty — it's time we truly lived up to our creed.

@lisa7.7 Agreed. The so called Civil Rights leaders in this Country, along with The President, The AG and community leaders should send the following message to black youth: If you live a thug's life, you are likely to die a thug's death.

On Nov. 9, 1967, in Buffalo, N.Y., the Rev. Martin Luther King said, "Violent revolts grow out of revolting living conditions. ... Violence is the language of the unheard." The protests in Ferguson are not just about Michael Brown. They are the response of a community of people who experienced and witnessed the mistreatment of black men for far too long and lack political power and voice.

According to Jeff Smith, an assistant professor of urban policy at the New School and a former Missouri state senator from St. Louis, Ferguson's demographics have shifted in recent years. "In 1990, the community was 74 percent white and 25 percent black and by 2010 it was 67 percent black and 29 percent white." Blacks have only been in Ferguson in large numbers in the last 15 years and do not have "deeply rooted civic organizations that can help emerging leaders get elected," Smith said. "This explains in part why majority black Ferguson has a primarily white power structure. It includes a white mayor; a school board with one Latino and six white members; a city council with just one black member and a 6 percent black police force."

To add further pressure to this system, Ferguson relies heavily on traffic ticket revenue so blacks are "pulled over, cited and arrested in numbers far exceeding their population share." This further exacerbates the culture of tension between police and citizens. The protests in Ferguson are a response to the "revolting" living conditions of that place. Some of the public policy decisions have heightened and concretized racial discord. Black men bear a particularly heavy burden in this place. They are the ones most likely arrested, incarcerated or killed.

Ferguson is not alone. Many communities struggle with similar issues. The location may change, but the story remains the same. An unarmed black man somewhere appeared threatening to someone and was killed because the person with a weapon was intimidated.

Someone once said, "perception is reality." Through public awareness campaigns we have changed the way people think about seat belts, smoking indoors and littering. I believe with focused attention, we can change the negative way some people think about black men.

My soul cries out as I remember other black men slain by those with clouded perceptions. In 2006, Sean Bell of Queens was killed in a hail of 50 bullets by police officers, just hours before his wedding. In 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen was killed by a fear-filled George Zimmerman. In July, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old husband and father, was killed by a police chokehold, because of allegations he was selling loose cigarettes on the streets of Staten Island. And now Michael Brown.

It's not just about Ferguson. Black men in Hartford and everywhere experience micro-aggressions they must navigate. They endure looks of fear in the elevator, locked car doors as they walk by and the suspicious gaze of police officers when they drive through white neighborhoods.

Before Ferguson, I had not felt so profoundly the daily pressure the men I love face. I pray for them with new sorrows now. They live — on alert — ready to respond to the warning signs of a stranger who sees them as an intimidating, dark force of harm rather than a son, brother, partner, pastor, neighbor or friend.

Black men are dying in our streets. We need to change the way we think and act about race. All life is sacred.

Rev. Shelley D. Best is president and CEO of The Conference of Churches in Hartford.

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